Day: March 11, 2018

As a warm midday sun baked the Martian regolith, the first four members of the crew 190 landed on a small patch of dirt, between a small hill and a trail in the red soil. As we exited our vehicle, we felt the soft martian soil beneath our boots and, walking around the hill, we laid our eyes on the station for the first time. Glowing in the strong martian sun, amplified by the complete silence surrounding us, the station appeared taller and wider than we had imagined it.

While we approached the door, a fleet of ATVs arrived in a cloud of dust behind us, carrying members of the previous crew. Our greetings were made simpler by our shared language – back on Earth, our two teams come from France and Belgium, two neighbouring countries that both speak French. Inside the station’s airlock, the cold dark air welcomed us to our new home, where we will spend the entire duration of our stay.

Inside, the rest of the French team welcomed us warmly. Soon enough, the other four members of our crew arrived, and we all ate together in the now cramped top floor of the station. We knew we would be alone again the next day, which made us enjoy the social mood even more, laughing and talking about our experiences on Mars.

In the morning, we were alone already – the French had taken off before the first light of day. With blueberry pancakes (made entirely from freeze-dried materials, of course) and powdered juice, our day of training began. After a tour of the station, a course in water supply management, a training in space suits, ATVs, mapping and teamwork, we were deemed ready to tackle the challenges of the next couple of weeks.

As the thick metal door closed on the outside world just before sunset, and we found ourselves locked in the station alone, we finally realised that this is it – this is what we’ve been waiting for – for over a year of preparation, training, and intense work, we had all imagined the moment when we would get here and live out our adventure.. and, now, as we sit inside the hab, I believe we only began to realise that our work had finally paid off, and that we truly are here now.

HabCar used and why, where: HabCar was used to get water in Hanksville
and fill the third water tank. 5 trips and return.
General notes and comments: we cleaned up the third water tank and
filled it completely.
Summary of internet: ~400 Mb remaining
Summary of suits and radios: –
Summary of Hab operations: settle in
Summary of GreenHab operations: –
Summary of ScienceDome operations: –
Summary of RAMM operations: –
Summary of health and safety issues: –

Today we were not in simulation yet. Firstly, we woke up at 6:30 and filled the water tank using the MDRS’ car doing round trips between the base and Hanskville. After that, Shannon gave us detailed explanations for the different devices, pump, heater and others things to manage in the station. We spent a bit of time (around 2 hours) walking around the station, discovering the beautiful landscapes. We finally had pastas with the whole team at midday, our first experiments with this very particular kitchen. To begin the afternoon we spent some time with Shannon and Atila to receive the formation for space suits, talky-walky, ATV and rovers. After a session of equipment test, we enjoyed the sun a bit and made some pictures. Finally, we finished the day doing a journey with ATV lead by Shannon, before traveling by ourselves towards the “special region”. We didn’t find any dinosaur bones though! This journey was the opportunity for Sophie and Ariane to get their first experience driving ATV, which was really important before driving in full simulation. Regarding the mindset of the crew, everyone is ready for the simulation and the mood in the team is very good!

The plan for tomorrow is to do EVA on the morning and experimental setup for the afternoon.

About The MDRS

The Mars Desert Research Station in the Utah desert was established by the Mars Society in 2001 to better educate researchers, students and the general public about how humans can survive on the Red Planet. It is the second Mars analogue habitat after the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station was established in 2000.

Over 181 crews of six-person teams have lived in two week field visits at MDRS to simulate life on the Martian surface. Researchers and students alike have explored the Mars-like terrain in the area surrounding the station in full “spacesuits”, maintained the station’s systems, grown plants in the GreenHab to support themselves and even recycled their waste water.

Our activities at MDRS are not only about informing the public, but also conducting real research to bring humanity that much closer to the reality of human exploration on the planet Mars.

Annual field seasons at MDRS run approx. October through May. Anybody can apply to be on a crew, and we also need volunteers to help with the project.